Saturday, May 14, 2016

Has anyone ever really corroborated the claims of Bella Dodd?

Bella Dodd 1936

Besides Dietrich von Hildebrand's wife Dr. Alice?

Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, when speaking of her late husband, also mentions Bella Dodd and her claims of placing over a thousand men in seminaries as sleeper cells to climb the episcopal career ladder to the highest places in the Church. Dodd never named names. It is said Archbishop Sheen, her spiritual director, advised her not to do so.

Without names, without corroborated testimony, how do we know she wasn't sensationalizing her story? Or perhaps an instrument to sow confusion? What if her expulsion from the Communist Party was faked so that she could discredit clergy with her stories?

I came across a comment on another post which makes a lot of sense to me, and which illustrates the need to vet these conspiracy theories - even if Fulton Sheen believed them. Don't forget, JPII was deceived by Fr. Maciel. St. Therese was deceived by Leon Taxil.

SardathMARCH 6, 2011 @ 5:45 PMMary Ann, the fact that others were telling the same story as Dodd only proves that others had an interest in purveying the same notions at the same time; without corroboration, that could mean almost anything.

Part of my problem with Dodd’s story is that it so conveniently serves the purposes of people who might have wanted such a story to be told, regardless of whether it was true or not–and this works equally well from either the right wing or the left.

What if Dodd were not a genuine defector from the Communists, but had been “sheep-dipped” by the KGB with a phony expulsion to set her up as a credible source for a story the KGB wanted told? What better way for the Soviets to discredit the Catholic Church than by having a phony defector offer up a lurid tale of how the Church had been infiltrated and virtually taken over with no one being the wiser–especially if no such thing had actually happened!

On the other hand, what if Dodd were one of the many operatives who were infiltrated into the Communist Party by our own security apparatus in those days, and then publicly extracted with a bogus story intended to discredit the growing liberal reform movements within the Church by tarring them as agents of Soviet subversion. We know that such games were being played in similar circumstances by numerous federal agencies, as well as by private right-wing organizations with access to government resources; many of these covert operations were very sophisticated and highly successful, and were only exposed decades later after the damage had already been done.

In short, there are just too many hands potentially stirring this pot for me to put any credence in any of it without some kind of external control. Some objective check on the veracity of the stories needs to be found, and KGB documents–if genuine–might be just the ticket. I would be very interested to see what they have to say, if you can point me to a source for them. - Source

Anyway - I admire Dr. Alice von Hildebrand but her testimony on this is pretty much hear say, and remember, her late husband was more or less 'rebuffed' by Paul VI for his warnings about the New Mass, and Dr. Alice has been highly critical of the Paul VI ever since, earnestly trying to connect the Bella Dodd conspiracy dots to his pontificate. This to the delight of her conspiracy theorist fans. She's a die hard conspiracy-believer herself, as she so often attests:

Many a time I have heard Americans say that Europeans “smell conspiracy wherever they go.”

I, European born, am tempted to say that many Americans are naïve; living in a country that has been blessed by peace, and knowing little about history, they are more likely than Europeans (whose history is a tumultuous one) to fall prey to illusions.Rousseau has had an enormous influence in the United States. When Christ said to His apostles at the Last Supper that “one of you will betray Me,” the apostles were stunned. Judas had played his hand so artfully that no one suspected him, for a cunning conspirator knows how to cover his tracks with a show of orthodoxy. - Source

Dr. von Hildebrand has obviously bought Dodd's story completely. In fact, she appears to be interpreting the Fatima secret through the Bella Dodd lens now. OnePeterFive has that story here.

I left a comment asking if they had taken into account Sr. Lucia's double. Come to think of it - what if it was Paul VI's double who rebuffed Dietrich? It changes everything - or confirms it. OMG!

11 comments:

I find the fascination with such stories as temptations that put one at risk of taking one's eyes off of Christ and the Gospel. I had a woman last week trying to tell me that John Leary is a great prophet (um, no he's not - he was sanctioned by his bishop back in 1999). While in the Adoration chapel! St Pio tells us to pray, hope, and don't worry. He didn't include "and beware the Commies in the cupboard!"

Back in the day I read a ton of the academic literature on Soviet espionage after the Soviet archives were opened for scholarly research. The upshot is that the West was shot-through with communist agents or sympathizers at high and low levels (including YOU, Alger Hiss). It truly boggles the mind, and I would be surprised if only "three cardinals" were communist sympathizers or even active collaborators. That being said, there is ZERO evidence in the archives for Dodd's claims. She was deluded, probably the victim of hype/propaganda by her "superiors" to keep morale high. Moreover, the idea that atheist secret agents have the discipline/fortitude to enter seminary for eight years, pose as a priest for decades more in the hopes of becoming a bishop or cardinal is ludicrous.

The Soviets didn't need such super-human agents. Obviously plenty of seminarians came to be infected/embraced by Marxist concepts and motivations. Many of the radicalized subsequently left seminary or the priesthood (after wrecking a parish or two).

Terry,

The St. BJL painting is wonderful and arrived safe and sound. I was delighted to see the chain holding him to earthly cares was snapped--that detail wasn't visible in photos. In the "Lady Undoer of Knots" image we also missed a crucial detail--tiny Adam and Eve in flight. A lovely touch.

Reactionaries are the most gullible conspiracy theorists in the world, especially when it feeds their pre-existing narratives of hate and fear. You could sell them the Brooklyn Bridge if you told them that Queens was named by a secret cabal of gays in the pay of Pope Francis who had infiltrated Dolan's Archidiocese.

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